[E-rundbrief] Info 310 - FTAA/ALCA scheitert in Argentinien.
Matthias Reichl
mareichl at ping.at
Di Nov 8 19:25:41 CET 2005
E-Rundbrief - Info 310: Werner Hörtner: Die Befreiung des Hinterhofs. Der
Aufstand gegen die Hegemonialpolitik der USA hat sich noch nie so stark und
deutlich manifestiert wie beim OAS-Gipfel in Mar del Plata und den
Protestaktionen. Der US-Präsident verließ als ein Gescheiterter die
Konferenz der 34 Staaten Amerikas; Bush Fails to Revive Free Trade Talks in
Latin America Amid Mass Protests. Amy Goodman interviewed
protest-co-organiser Beverly Keene (Jubilee South).
Bad Ischl, 8.11.2005
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at
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Die Befreiung des Hinterhofs
Der Aufstand gegen die Hegemonialpolitik der USA hat sich noch nie so stark
und deutlich manifestiert wie beim OAS-Gipfel in Mar del Plata und den
Protestaktionen. Der US-Präsident verließ als ein Gescheiterter die
Konferenz der 34 Staaten Amerikas.
Werner Hörtner
Mehr als 30 000 Menschen zogen an diesem kühlen regnerischen Morgen des 4.
November durch das argentinische Seebad Mar del Plata zum Estadio
Mundialista, einem Fußballstadion, wo die große Anti-Bush-Veranstaltung mit
dem Präsidenten Venezuelas, Hugo Chávez, stattfinden sollte. Der
Friedensnobelpreisträger Adolfo Pérez Esquivel hatte die Initiative zum
"Gipfeltreffen der Völker" ergriffen, um dem ungeliebten Präsidenten aus
dem Norden die Ablehnung von dessen Projekt einer Gesamtamerikanischen
Freihandelszone (ALCA) und überhaupt von dessen Politik auszudrücken. So
war denn neben den Anti-ALCA-Plakaten häufig die direkt an Bush gerichtete
Losung "Sie sind der Terrorist!" zu sehen.
Der Zug der Morgendämmerung
Aus Buenos Aires war auch ein ganz besonderer Zug mit viel Prominenz an
Bord gekommen, um an der Protestveranstaltung teilzunehmen: "El Tren del
Alba". Dieser Name bedeutet nicht nur "Zug der Morgendämmerung" er kam
tatsächlich, nach siebenstündiger Fahrt, um ½ 7 Uhr morgens in Mar del
Plata an - , sondern auch "ALBA-Zug". ALBA sind im Spanischen die
Anfangsbuchstaben der von Chávez gepushten "Bolivarianischen Alternative
für Amerika", einem Gegenprojekt zu Bushs Gesamtamerikanischer
Freihandelszone ALCA. ALBA ist jedoch nicht in erster Linie ein Projekt der
wirtschaftlichen Zusammenarbeit, sondern ein politisches Projekt, das auf
einen "Sozialismus für das 21. Jahrhundert" abzielt.
Der Star des ALBA-Zuges war Diego Maradona, Argentiniens bekannter
Fußballstar, der sich an die Spitze der Proteste gegen den US-Präsidenten
gestellt hatte. Mit ihm reisten der bolivarianische Oppositionsführer Evo
Morales, der serbische Filmemacher Emil Kusturica und viel Prominenz der
argentinischen Linken, die sich wenigstens im Zug der Morgendämmerung
zusammensetzen konnten
"Al carajo el ALCA Zum Teufel mit ALCA!"
Unter den Klängen karibischer Musik war der Demonstrationszug zum
Fußballstadion gezogen, wo dann Stars der lateinamerikanischen Protestmusik
und der kubanischen Nueva Trova die vielen Tausenden Menschen erwarteten:
der Chilene Pancho Villa und die Kubaner Amaurí Pérez und Silvio Rodríguez,
Daniel Viglietti aus Uruguay. Von einem riesigen Transparent blickte der
legendäre Che auf die Menge.
Die ecuadorianische Indígena Blanca Canchoso las die Schlusserklärung des
"III. Gipfels der Völker" vor. Hugo Chávez bat sie um Kopien des
Dokumentes, um sie dann seinen Amtskollegen beim "anderen Gipfel"
vorzulegen. Und dann begann der venezolanische Präsident, der sich immer
mehr als Führer einer neuen lateinamerikanischen Linken profiliert, seinen
mit Spannung erwarteten Vortrag.
Zu Beginn seiner Ansprache berichtete Chávez, es habe ihn gerade Fidel aus
Kuba angerufen und ihm mitgeteilt, er würde im Fernsehen die Übertragung
der Protestveranstaltung miterleben. Kuba ist kein Mitgliedsland der
Organisation Amerikanischer Staaten und wird somit nie zu den OAS-Treffen
eingeladen.
Der venezolanische Präsident ließ es in seiner fast 2 ½-stündigen Rede an
starken Sprüchen nicht fehlen. "ALCA ist tot, wir müssen es begraben. Und
der Nächste, den wir begraben werden, wird der Kapitalismus sein." "Wir
haben eine zweifache Aufgabe: ALCA und das kapitalistisch-imperialistische
Wirtschaftsmodell zu begraben wir müssen aber auch die Geburtshelfer einer
neuen Zeit, einer neuen Geschichte, einer neuen Integration sein, nämlich
von ALBA, der Bolivarianischen Alternative für die Amerikas'."
Chávez erinnerte an die Allianz für den Fortschritt', die der damalige
Präsident John Kennedy vor 44 Jahren gestartet hatte, um Hunger und
Unterentwicklung in Lateinamerika auszurotten. "Wieso überlegt ihr euch
nicht wieder Initiativen wie diese", wandte er sich rhetorisch an die
Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten, "anstatt uns einen mörderischen
Freihandel aufzudrängen, der in den letzten 20 Jahren zu einem Ansteigen
der Armut und des Todes in Lateinamerika geführt hat?"
Zum Abschluss rief Chávez dem begeisterten Publikum zu: "Ich gehe nun zum
anderen Gipfel und werde eure Worte mitnehmen!"
Bushs Scheitern
Der "andere Gipfel" war das 4. Gipfeltreffen der Organisation
Amerikanischer Staaten, an dem die Staats- und Regierungschefs von 34
Ländern teilnahmen. Schon im Vorfeld hatte sich abgezeichnet, dass die
Stimmung gegen eine Neuaufnahme der Verhandlungen zu einem
Gesamtamerikanischen Freihandelsabkommen sein werde, dennoch präsentierte
US-Präsident Bush das ALCA-Projekt als seinen wichtigsten Programmpunkt.
Und fuhr damit einen völligen Fehlschlag ein. Auch wenn Mexikos Staatschef
Vicente Fóx der sich auf dem Gipfel wie ein Statthalter von Bush gab und
die Vertreter der zentralamerikanischen und einiger südamerikanischer
Länder für ALCA aussprachen, so waren wirtschaftlich und politisch mächtige
Staaten wie neben Venezuela Brasilien und Argentinien gegen neuerliche
Verhandlungen. Auch die Wirtschaftsunion Mercosur der neben Argentinien
und Brasilien auch Paraguay und Uruguay angehören sprach sich als
Organisation dagegen aus.
Schon bei der Eröffnungsrede des OAS-Gipfels hatte der argentinische
Präsident Nestor Kirchner in ungewöhnlich klarer und ungeschminkter Sprache
dem ALCA-Projekt eine Absage erteilt. Der Staatschef hob die
verhängnisvolle Rolle des Internationalen Währungsfonds hervor, den er,
zusammen mit den nationalen Eliten, für das soziale Drama verantwortlicht
machte, das Lateinamerika heute erlebe. Kirchner änderte seine Position
auch nach einem 50-minütigen Gespräch mit Bush unter vier Augen nicht. Und
Brasiliens Präsident Lula, den Bush anschließend an Argentinien besuchte,
blieb bei seiner Forderung, vor einer Wiederaufnahme der ALCA-Verhandlungen
müssen die USA ihre Agrarsubventionen abbauen und andere wirtschaftliche
Zugeständnisse machen.
So musste der Präsident der mächtigsten Nation der Welt das argentinische
Seebad als ein Gescheiterter verlassen. Bis jetzt hatte ihm und seinen
Vorgängern der Protest gegen die Politik der USA nur auf den Straßen
entgegengeschlagen erstmals sieht er sich nunmehr mit einem starken und
wachsenden Widerstand auf der politischen Ebene konfrontiert.
Liebe KollegInnen:
Anbei ein Artikel von mir zu dem OAS-Gipfel im argentinischen Mar del
Plata und dem Gegengipfel, als Anstoß für unsere eigene Mobilisierung
...
Weitere Infos gibt es auf www.prensadefrente.org und
http://argentina.indymedia.org.
Herzliche Grüße
Werner
--
Werner Hörtner
werner.hoertner at oneworld.at
Südwind Magazin
Laudongasse 40
A-1080 Wien
Tel.: +43 1 405 55 15 DW 308
Fax: +43 1 405 55 19
Homepage: http://www.oneworld.at/suedwind.magazin
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Bush Fails to Revive Free Trade Talks in Latin America Amid Mass Protests
Monday, November 7th, 2005
President Bush's trip to Argentina ended without any agreement on reviving
talks to create a regional free trade zone. On Friday, as many as 40,000
demonstrators filled the streets of Mar del Plata. We go to Argentina to
speak with Beverly Keene, one of the organizers the alternative People's
Summit. [includes rush transcript] President Bush failed to persuade other
leaders attending the Summit of the Americas meeting in Argentina this past
weekend to resume talks around achieving a hemisphere-wide free trade
agreement. Bush was hoping to persuade his Latin American and Caribbean
counterparts to endorse the Free Trade Area of the Americas or FTAA plan.
The FTAA would be larger than the European Union but without the free flow
of labor and political integration. The plan would get rid of tariffs and
other barriers that limit entry of American goods and services allowing
American exports to the region to bloom. Critics have spoken out against
the FTAA saying that it would do little to alleviate poverty in Latin
America while opening up huge markets for American companies.
Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez has called the agreement an
"annexationist plan" which would destroy local industry, roll back social
safety nets and labor protections and permanently extend American political
domination of the region to the economic realm. On Friday, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez led a rally of 25,000 people to protest Bush and the
FTAA.
* Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, November 4, 2005.
The alternative People's Summit took place in Argentina last week as well.
Thousands came from all over the continent to discuss issues such as
opposition to imperialism, employment and wealth distribution,
environmental degradation and debt forgiveness.
* Beverly Keene, coordinator with Jubilee South/Americas and a member
of the organizing committee for the People's Summit.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: This is President Chavez.
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: The capitalist model, the developed model,
the consumer model which comes from the North, which it has forced on the
world, is falling apart on earth, and there is no planet nearby that we can
emigrate to.
AMY GOODMAN: The alternative People's Summit took place in Argentina last
week, as well. Thousands came from all over the continent to discuss issues
such as opposition to imperialism, employment, wealth distribution,
environmental degradation and debt forgiveness. We're joined on the phone
now from Argentina by one of the organizers of the People's Summit, Beverly
Keene. Welcome to Democracy Now!
BEVERLY KEENE: Hello. Good morning.
AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. You're a coordinator with
Jubilee South, one of those who organized the People's Summit. Looking now
at this weekend, what do you think you accomplished?
BEVERLY KEENE: I think we have an enormously positive balance at the first
sight. One of the reasons is because it's a massive turnout; participation
in the People's Summit, during the three days of debates and more than 160
workshops and seminars and forums focusing on different aspects of a
popular agenda was enormous, very enthusiastic, more than 12,000 people.
And a lot of those people were from the very city of Mar del Plata, and
that was very encouraging because the city of Mar del Plata has been, for
the past six months, essentially under police alert, and the security net
has been tightening and tightening and tightening, and the campaign, in a
sense, of fright and of fear, telling people that they ought to stay home,
that they ought to leave, that they ought to close their businesses, etc.,
was really tremendous. So it was very, very positive that so many people
from Mar del Plata, in fact, turned out, participated very actively in
events, including the march, which was a tremendously large march for the
city of Mar del Plata. And that's a very good sign.
I think the other good, very positive evaluation that we've made is that in
the course of the three days, on an agenda that was very much focused on
building alternatives, there was tremendous discussion in each of the
sectoral forums and each of the thematic groups, and a number of very
specific initiatives were launched and that are becoming part of what is
the continental agenda, not just to say, 'No to the F.T.A.A.! No to
militarization!' but how can we advance in some very, very concrete
programs. So that was good news.
I think also, obviously, part of our positive evaluation of what took place
in Mar del Plata these days is the fact that despite the immense pressure
from the U.S., from Canada and from other countries in the region, the --
at least U.S.'s proposal to move forward and put a date to resuming the
negotiations towards the building of the F.T.A.A., that was not able to be
pushed through.
Undoubtedly, there is a continuing concern here in Argentina, in the
continent and through all of those social movements and organizations that
participated in the summit, the fact that the F.T.A.A. still appears in the
document and the kinds of neoliberal policies that have been pursued
against the interests and the rights of the people of the hemisphere over
the past decade or 15 years are still very much present in the document
itself, in the declaration of the presidents
AMY GOODMAN: Beverly Keene
BEVERLY KEENE: so we have an agenda ahead of us.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what Chavez was putting forward as he
announced they had gathered at the gravesite of the F.T.A.A., the
Bolivarian alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean, known as
A.L.B.A., the Spanish acronym meaning "dawn," to replace the F.T.A.A., and
where do the other Latin American leaders come down on this?
BEVERLY KEENE: Well, I think what Chavez said and what he was speaking to
was, in fact, a hope and at least a partial reality, in the fact the U.S.
wasn't able and hasn't been able thus far to impose its agenda, which we
can all remember, as of the first Summit of the Americas which was held in
Miami in 1994, from that time on, the U.S.'s agenda was to have the
F.T.A.A. up and running by January 2005. Well, we are now in November 2005,
and the F.T.A.A. is still on paper. So we're continuing in a sense to be
able to hold it back. And Venezuela's position, the position of Chavez's
government, in that sense, has been very, very clear. And I think when he
announces here in Mar del Plata that we have come to the gravesite, it's
continuing to press in that respect.
What maybe is most important coming out of the declaration of the
presidents in Mar del Plata is, in fact, a very formal and a very official
recognition of divided opinions among the governments of Latin America. And
that means that there will be continued pressure, certainly on the
governments here in the southern cone, Argentina and Brazil, Venezuela,
itself, of course, Uruguay and Paraguay, to bring about change in those
positions and is a subject of concern.
Chavez and the Venezuelan government has a very clear alternative, a very
clear position -- "No to the F.T.A.A. under any circumstances" -- and is
moving alternatives forward, such as you mentioned, the question of really
advancing with alternative forms of integration, both in the economic
sphere, in science and technology, in education, in health, in a number of
different areas. And that's a real challenge for the other governments of
the southern cone, in particular, who have at base taken a firm step
forward in this point to say that under existing conditions they're not
willing to continue negotiating the F.T.A.A. Our fear and certainly part of
our -- the target of our action over the next coming months here in
Argentina and other countries in the southern cone will be to continue to
bolster that opposition on the part of our governments, because the fear is
that if there are, in a sense, some concessions, however minor, then indeed
the floodgates may still be opened.
AMY GOODMAN: Beverly Keene, what about the protests? Can you talk about the
level, if there was violence, how people came together, how the state, how
the police responded?
BEVERLY KEENE: Well, I think, first of all, it's important to mention that
there was an enormously large march and rally. You know, we're
talking I've seen estimates of between 30,000 and 50,000 people. One of
the things that many noted is that while we marched through the streets of
Mar del Plata on the morning of November 4, there wasn't a police officer
in sight. Quite different to what had been the reality in the three
previous days as we had gathered in Mar del Plata. But the march was
extraordinarily peaceful. It was, I would say, very enthusiastic.
Certainly the target of the march was Bush and Bush's policies, not only in
Latin America, but around the world. But it was an enormously festive
occasion, as people were really feeling a sense of coming together from
different parts of the continent, from different parts and different
political organizations, different social organizations, different
positions, certainly here in Argentina with respect to what is the local
political scene, but there was a real sense of unity in terms of that, 'No
to Bush.'
The afternoon unfortunately saw a number of very, in a sense, minor
incidents, in the sense that there were very few people actually engaged.
There were large marches to the I can't think of how you say this the
walls that had been set up by the police to keep people out of the
presidential summit. There were massive marches from the stadium after
Chavez's speech back to the area where the presidents, themselves, were
meeting. But most of the people who engaged in those marches, in fact, were
not able to get as far as they had hoped because of eventual police repression.
But at the time that there was acts of vandalism, certainly in Mar del
Plata, what is very clear is that the police were nowhere to be seen, and
they didn't show up for a long time. Here in Argentina, there's a very
clear sense, and this is what you can get if you talk to neighbors in Mar
del Plata, if you read what's available in the media, that, in fact, a kind
of liberated zone was set up. Police were nowhere in sight. They weren't
brought in until well after the incidents of vandalism itself were finished.
AMY GOODMAN: Beverly Keene
BEVERLY KEENE: so there's a sense is that it was, in a sense, part of
efforts to really pressure the government itself and particularly part of
an effort to, in a sense, cast a doubt or cast a shadow over what had been
enormously successful four days of debate, discussion among social
movements and organizations from the hemisphere and an enormously
successful march and rally that very morning.
AMY GOODMAN: Wasn't the Argentine president also actually critical of
President Bush? Now, also, Bush went on to Brazil and is in Panama, where
the President Torrijos supports the F.T.A.A.
BEVERLY KEENE: President Kirchner was very critical in his opening address.
I haven't actually heard it, nor had a chance to read it yet, but according
to many accounts, it was a very strong address, and he was very critical,
certainly, of positions, not only in relation to the commercial
negotiations, but certainly in relation to I.M.F.'s role and stance in
relation to Latin America. What is a challenge for movements and
organizations here in Argentina, however, is to sift through, in a sense,
what often we say is a distance between rhetoric and reality.
It is certainly true that the policies of the government of Argentina are
moving forward, are very different and a vast improvement over what we have
known in prior decades, in the decades of the 1990s and certainly in the
earlier part of this decade. But there is, I think, growing concern among
many here in Argentina that while the government talks a stiff line, it's
often it's not always what is the reality of its policies. And this has
certainly been true in relation to questions like the debt and its very
relations with the I.M.F. So we'll these are areas that we'll continue to
be watching very carefully and working on very carefully and hoping to
strengthen, indeed, what is both the rhetoric and also the reality of the
government's policies.
AMY GOODMAN: Beverly Keene, I want to thank you for being with us from
Argentina, coordinator of Jubilee South and on the organizing committee for
the People's Summit.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/07/1438223
Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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